> On Nov 29, 2016, at 2:19 PM, Traveller Mailing List <xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:
>
> Well, given that a properly maintained conventional firearm will work in a vacuum, I don’t know that there was much need for these. A few of them are just ‘sci-fied up’ standard air rifles.

The *mechanism* works in vacuum.

The Gun includes user interface.  Particularly but not limited to the gloves.  Whose effect is sort of like wearing surgical gloves, rubber cleaning gloves, mittens and then ski gloves, all at once.  Only worse.  Particularly if you use suits at 8 PSI (min for low bends risk without prebreathe from normal atmos pressure) vs 4 PSI (Apollo, Shuttle et al; requires prebreathe up to 8 hrs before donning to avoid bends risk).

"Winter / snow triggers" for normal guns, and safety and operating levers, are going to be a bit hard to work...

For real, suit designs / The Bends probably push space habitats from standard atmosphere (14.7 PSI, 3 PSI O2 11.7 N2 more or less) to lower (12 overall) and mixes like 12 PSI quadmix O2, N2, He, Ar all at 3 PSI each, or so.  Otherwise the suit problem never will be "routine"...

[I have done suits / EMU life support professionally, though not right now].

-george william herbert
xxxxxx@gmail.com

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